


The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways

by RhysieRain



Series: No Piano [1]
Category: Hello From The Hallowoods (Podcast)
Genre: AU, Could this be called a, Fix-It, Fluffy, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misgendering, Other, Romance, Sort Of, Transphobia, tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:08:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhysieRain/pseuds/RhysieRain
Summary: An AU where Percy isn't a Ghost Piano and Diggory is a gift from his dad to help 'Fix Him' (But in reality it's just too queer people falling in love because of him)
Relationships: Diggory Graves/Percy Reed
Series: No Piano [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200743
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the Hallowoods Discord gang for helping inspire the ideas fully and for being epically poggers. Also TW for Solomon standard misgendering and transphobia towards both Diggory and Percy as well as standard warnings for Percy's backstory.

The thing his father  had given him was strange, even by revenant standards. Percy had grown used to the bumbling things by now, most of them acting the way you’d assume a patchwork doll would act. He would see  them walking around the grounds doing  chores  or hear their loud footsteps marching below  him, but he’d never see them talk. They wouldn’t interact with  each other , not in the same way human servants would. He’d assumed it was the way they were made to be . Unthinking things carrying out tasks.

But apparently not. 

This.... Diggory was not like that at all. Sure, they were shaped like the others with patchwork skin and glassy eyes, but they didn’t act like them. They would talk and interact with Percy, regardless of how unwilling he was to respond. He supposed for a moment that probably _was_ his job, to be a sort of friend.  After all, when his father had presented Diggory to him he had near enough said it. 

_ “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” Solomon had said, “Perhaps spending time with a. _ _.. Real man will help cleanse your sins.” _

Percy had laughed in his face at that. Like usual, his father had sneered back and slammed the door to Percy’s wing of the house. The click of the lock trapping him in once more. Since then, he and Diggory had been at a headlock. Percy would walk to his library and read whatever non heavily religious book he could find and Diggory would watch him with impassive eyes under a mess of hair. He would practice playing the piano and Diggory would sit on the far stone bench in the room, watching once again. He would go to bed and even with the door closed and silence covering the house, he still knew that Diggory was awake in another room, never turning off. 

Today was different though, as now Percy had a job to do. As he looked in the mirror this morning, he could tell his hair was getting too long. His father would rather he never cut his hair of course but Percy still managed to chop it off when it got too long. He always made sure that the ends at the back tickled his shoulders and the front barely hit his forehead. The only reason he hadn’t been stopped was because his father was yet to find his scissors. And it was going to stay that way. 

He pe e ked carefully through the door, checking if Diggory was set to watching him mode yet.  Apparently not. He returned to the vanity and scraped his fingernails around the  dip where the wood hit the mirror and found purchase on the edge. He pulled the mirror forwards, revealing the wooden inset that hide various things. A picture of his friends from before, a ripped scrap of binder he had  salvaged from the fire place , and finally a  thin small pair of sewing scissors shaped like a swan . He pulled them out and pushed the mirror back into  its place. He checked the door again, listening for Diggory’s footsteps before continuing. 

He was  halfway through his fringe when he heard Diggory’s  voice.

“What are you doing Persephone?” They  asked.

Percy scowled at them f iercely. 

“None of your business freak. “He replied. “And I told you, don’t call me Persephone if we’re alone.”

“Why?” Diggory replied, their black lips turned into a small  frown.

“ Because , ” Percy said with a vicious snip at his fringe “It’s not my name. It’s just what my father calls me.” 

More hair fell onto the desk in front of Percy as he carried on.   
  
“If he’s here, don’t call me Percy. Unless you want to look worse than you already do.” He stated, “When he’s gone, it’s only Percy. Got it?”   
  
“I understand.” Diggory rumbled, though their lips still curved downwards. 

They watched as Percy kept snipping away at his fringe until he moved round to the back twisting his arm around.  His shorter arms only just could reach the hair there and even then, he could never see what he was doing. Percy  knew the back always looked  dreadful, but he could never bring himself to care.  Suddenly, c old fingers plucked the scissors from his grasps and Percy whirl ed round to look at them. 

“Give them back.”  He said loudly, about to jolt forwards to snatch them back.

A hand placed itself on his shoulder and lightly spun him  around. He turned his head round quickly , looking up at Diggory in  confusion.

“Let me help.” 

Percy conceded.  He watched in silence as Diggory cut ritually at his hair, breaking the silence for a moment only to tell them how far to cut. Diggory listened and  cut gently, the edge of the scissors tickling along his neck. He inspected the haircut when they were done, shaking it out and brushing stray hairs from his arms.  It was neater, a lot neater in fact than it had ever  been, and it looked  g ood. A few longer bits of hair framed his face now and it somehow looked more masculine than it ever had. 

He turned around slowly to thank Diggory but found he couldn’t even meet their eyes. Literally, as what could be called a fringe but looked more like a  bird ’s ne s t hung over their eyes as they looked down. He smiled and pushed Diggory back into the vanity’s chair that sat further back in the room. Diggory looked up questioningly.

“Here.” Percy said, “Let me return the  favour .”

He leaned down,  Diggory's head reaching his shoulder whilst sat and carefully cut into the mess of hair at the front. He was tempted to try and brush it first but just looking at it he knew that even a  large-toothed comb wouldn’t run through the wiry strands of hair.  By the time he had cut the knots out of their hair what was once a long fringe almost reaching their nose was now a short little one barely hitting his forehead. Diggory’s eyes were even more intense as they stared up at  Percy with what looked possibly looked like wonder in their eyes. Percy smiled back at  them before spinning around to the other side of the chair inspecting the back. It was nowhere near as  worse, so he took to brushing it with the hairbrush, Diggory barely flinching as he  yanked the brush through the hardier knots. 

Later, a s Diggory helped him replace the scissors in their hiding place and throw their hair from the window to be lost to the breeze, he  realised something.  It felt like, for the first time, that they had reached an understanding of some kind. 

* * *

When Solomon returned for the first time in weeks, his father had been off terrorizing people in the woods somewhere, the tension was even thicker than it had been before. He sat with his father in the home’s living room, a space he rarely saw since he’d been confined to his wing. He had been done up as he was usually made to, a light ‘modest’ face of makeup and one of the longer sundresses on. He had been managing to get away with stealing a pair of Diggory’s trousers the last week or two whilst his father was gone, rolling the long battered jeans up his legs and using a shorter dress as a makeshift shirt. 

Diggory stood at the door, their thumbs tracing the sides of their hands in something akin to anxiously. Solomon looked between them.

“So, Persephone, how exactly is having a proper boy around going.”    
  
“Oh, wonderfully father.” He said with a touch of sarcasm, giving his father a smile as he leaned to rest his head on his hand.

“And yet he let you cut your hair like that?” His father asked disdainfully. “I don’t believe him or you to do so.” 

“I did it when he was resting.” Percy  interrupted. “Can’t stop something he didn’t know was happening.”

“ Revenants don’t rest.” Solomon fired  back.

“ Well, I do and asked, he respects my space . Unless you want you r unmarried child sharing a bedroom with a _ man  _ now.”

His father pursed his lips angrily as Percy gave him a serene smile back . 

“I suppose not.” He begrudgingly answered, “And his haircut?”   
  
“I told him to do it. “ Percy responded “I got sick of looking at it, so I made him cut it off. I demanded one of the others do it, when they brought my food up. ” 

His father looked him in the eyes and Percy stared back unflinching. He knew testing his father was a bad idea, especially since he had awoken from death to his own mother being turned into a musical instrument. But he still couldn’t bring himself to stand down. He knew, or rather hoped, that his father wouldn’t risk losing him. Not since he had returned to Percy on death’s door, locked away by his mother.    
Solomon looked away.

“Go back to your room Persephone.” He  spoke . “ I’m growing tired of this game you’re playing. If you’re not careful, the Lord’s punishment will come and not even I will be able to redeem you.”

Percy chose not to grace him with an answer. 

* * *

Returning to his room Percy flopped onto his bed and screamed into the pillow angrily. Every time he spoke to his father, he felt lost and like death. It was harder and harder every time his father came back.  He lay there for a moment before ripping his head up from the pillow, the weight of Diggory’s eyes sitting too heavily on him. 

“What do you want.” He said tiredly, feeling Diggory’s questions on his skin.

“Solomon,” They rumbled “He called me a man.”

“Yes. He did.” Percy mumbled back, lying his head back down. 

“But I’m not one.”

Percy’s head shot back up. 

“What?” He  asked.

“I’m not a boy. I’m Diggory Graves .” They responded.

“Are you... a girl?” Percy asked curiously. 

“No. I’m Diggory.”

“I- Oh.” Percy said. “Oh... OH MY GOD.”

He launched off  from the bed bounding over to Diggory and grasped their hands intently.

“ So, you’re not a boy or a girl then?” He asked giddily.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“What pronouns do you use?”

“I don’t know what those are.” 

Percy grinned at them, eyes sparkling. 

“Did you mind it when we  used he and him?” He asked matter - of -f actly .

“I-” Diggory frowned, their eyebrows pinching together. “It didn’t feel good. Not Bad bad . Just not right, like there was something wrong.” 

At this Percy clapped his hands together and laughed raucously. 

“All this time-” He laughed out, “Here I’ve been  hating my father for putting you here, thinking I need a boyfriend to fix me. But you’re just like me. In the best ways , sort of.  You’re being assumed, or rather  forced, to be someone else . J ust like me.”

“ I suppose so.” Diggory replied. 

“ I knew my father  was a bit  stupid, but I didn’t think he was this bad.” He laughed out, fumbling around in the drawer closest to his bed for a moment. He pulled out a sheet of paper and a blunt pencil from it and began scribbling  furiously. Diggory approached the bed and hesitantly sat next to him and watched him scribbl e. 

“Okay here.” Percy said showing him the paper. “So, this here is what pronouns are right and how we use them. And these are all the ones I can think of. We can try them until you find one that you  like, or we can use more than one if that suits you. And-”

He paused and frowned and looked at Diggory intently. 

“I’m sorry that I didn’t  realise sooner, and that I used the wrong  one's for you earlier.  I will try not to do it  again, but I might have to, to protect you.” He said, looking away with a grimace.  “ My father would definitely not  approve and I don’t want to put you in danger.”

“ Like your name.” Diggory  cut in and Percy looked up.  “I don’t call you Percy or use he around Solomon. To protect you.”

“That’s right.” Percy said with a small smile. “We’ll protect  each other, okay?”

He leaned forwards and squeezed Diggory’s hand and Diggory gently squeezed back. They frowned for a moment again, brow furrowed before looking up. 

“Does this mean we’re friends now?” They  asked.

“What do you mean?” Percy asked curiously.

“I thought you didn’t like me. That you  hated me, like your father.”

“Oh Diggory.” Percy said with a sorrowful expression. “I’ve never hated you, not like I hate him.”   
  
For a moment, Diggory looked like they were about to cry. 

“You were mean and I, I, I thought I’d done something wrong all this time.” 

Percy flailed and grasped  Diggory's hands again sliding closer. 

“No  no no.” He replied. “ I may have, just maybe, taken some anger out on you. And I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You’re. You’re just as much as a prisoner as me here, aren’t you? And I didn’t think about that.  I was too wrapped up in my  father's scheming. But I promise I’ll be better.”

Diggory gave him a quivering smile and Percy couldn’t help but lean into hug  them , standing slightly so he could wrap his arms around their shoulders. They just looked so sad.  Percy couldn’t really say he hadn’t meant to hurt them because he had. But that was to spite his father, not to hurt Diggory. He could be better than that,  better than despising someone just as damaged by Solomon as he was. 

“ I promise you haven’t done anything wrong. And things will be better now for both of us.” He leaned back and placed his list of pronouns in Diggory’s hand and curled their fingers around it. “Here. Read the list and let me know and we’ll go from there.

When his father called him down a week or so later, a beautiful bone flute now clutched in his hands Percy could barely keep the smug grin from his face. His father watched him d istrustfully as he stood on the staircase, eyes looking away from Solomon’s face. 

“What’s wrong with you girl.” His father spat when a slight snigger erupted from his mouth.

“ Oh, nothing father, I just think I’m starting to see where you’re coming from.”

* * *

From then on, things really were better between him and Diggory. They tried each pronoun on the list as the week went on, Diggory eventually settling on using they/them. They still struggled to find the words to describe themself and nothing Percy suggested seemed to work.

“I’m just. Just Diggory Graves.” They said and Percy patted them on the shoulder.

“That’s all you need to be.”

And from there, Percy’s hobbies turned into both of their hobbies. Percy would sit in the library on the hotter days as some form of summer or rather hot air drew in, the window opened as much as it could to spread a breeze. They would sit together reading, Percy plucking anything too fanatical from Diggory’s hands and replacing it with his favourites. There weren’t many that were fictional, but he still tried to hand them to Diggory. Though they could instinctively read, it seemed they couldn’t remember anything they had actually ever read. He went through the childrens books fast, the first of the Narnia books holding him for just one day of their reading sessions. Eventually, they started on the bigger books and tried to read the battered copy of Jane Austen work’s left to him by his mother. After watching Diggory squint and furrow their brows at the language and the tiny font the book contained, Percy worked out a new solution. 

As they turned the page one last time, Percy sat up and plucked the book from Diggory’s hand.

“Come here.” He laughed. “You look like you’re going cross-eyed trying to read it.”

Diggory smiled back  softly  and settled back in the wooden chair , watching Percy sit up primly on the other sofa.  He lifted the book up to his face, let out a loud AHEM, and peeked over the top of it. 

“Well?” He asked, “Come over here. I don’t know if my voice will carry that far.”

Diggory shuffled over and slid into the sofa next to him and Percy lift his legs up to rest on Diggory’s lap, giving them a sunny smile.

“Okay ! Where were we - ”

And so that became their warmer day schedule. And as it grew closer to evening and Percy’s voice would begin to grow hoarse and stutter, Diggory would move  their legs and lean over . They would rest their head in  Percy’s lap so that  he could run his fingers through their hair until  his voice faded out. Each time Percy would carefully place the book down, fingers folding a corner of the page to bookmark , and  then  rest his head back  savouring the moment until their peace would be interrupted by another revenant knocking at the door.

And on the colder days, where a chill began to permeate the house and an air of almost loneliness began to spread through the cold halls , Diggory would follow Percy to the near empty music room . He would sit on the step beside the grand piano Percy would play at. He would practice for an hour or two,  snippets of haunting music Percy could just remember  without proper sheets b eing played. T hough on this d ay as he played , Diggory traced the words on the side of the piano and looked up at Percy,

“Why is your name on this one?” They asked quietly during a break in the music. “You’re not one of them are you, one of his... instruments.”

“I’m not.” Percy acknowledged. “But ... I almost was.”

“When.... When my father returned home, he found me locked in this room with my lips sewn shut starving to death.  I was just barely alive and my mother, well. Let’s say she became one of the first instruments in his collection.  I was only just  alive , and he nursed me back to health.  He was going to make me one of those things  but. He changed his mind.” 

“I think he thought I was redeemable, that the Lord had let me live so he could save me in this life too.  Of course, he’s wrong. It was chance. If he’d been a few days  later, I would’ve been dead and the only way he could bring me back would’ve been this thing.”

Diggory stood up and sat beside him. Percy could feel their gaze even though he could not see it through the tears streaming down his face. 

“I sometimes wonder if it would be better. To be that. Or to just be dead.  I could escape that way, maybe be me in another place and not locked here.  I mean sure.  I could pretend  to be what he wants, hide myself back in the closet. But I’ve tasted freedom, as briefly as it  was, and I am not ready to let it go. I don’t WANT to give in.”

“You don’t have to.” Diggory said slowly, a clawed hand coming over Percy’s clenched fist delicately. “You are Percy first.  You’ll always be Percy to me.”

Percy looked up at that, blearily through the tears.

“Even if you  have to pretend ,  to  survive, you’ll be you. And there will be a day where you don’t have to hide  it, I’m sure of it.”

Percy clutched  their hand tightly and leaned up and kissed them. It was messy and barely a kiss, noses and chins bouncing against  each other and Percy spreading his tears across their face .  Diggory's clawed hand came up beside him and held his face tight to theirs, foreheads pressed against  each other . They sat  there in the silence of the dreary room , faces against  each other's , taking in both their love and their sadness. 

Later on , when they finally pulled back from  each other's embrace and Percy  had eaten his meager  meal, Percy grasped  Diggory’s  hand tight and pulled  them to his bed room .  A storm had set in over the  Hallowoods , darkening the sky and Percy had left the lights off. The dark peace was almost calming.  He laid next to Diggory on his bed , staring at their  face and listened to the rain. Diggory stared back tenderly and pushed a lose curl of dark hair that had swept across Percy’s face and leaned in. They tucked Percy’s head against their should er and leaned their head on top, a comforti ng pressure.  Percy inhaled and breathed in their scent, the earthiness of dirt and mud from outside never seeming to leave their body.

“ I’m going to take you away from here.” Diggory said suddenly and Percy tilted his head up. “We’ll find  a way to leave.” 

“How?” Percy whispered back.

“I do not know how.” Diggory replied in a gravelly voice. “But we will. You deserve better than this.”

“So do you.” Percy whispered back.    


“Where you  go, I will follow.” Diggory whispered back, clawed fingers running through Percy’s hai r .

“And the same goes for you.” Percy muttered, jabbing at  Diggory's chest “You matter too. Don’t ever think you  don’t”.

Diggory released what  could barely be called a chuckle. “ I won’t .”

“Good.”

And  so, they lay  there in the dark, the rain pounding against the window. Though they did not know the future or whether they could truly escape from the walls of this place Percy was certain that  if he had Diggory in his life he was halfway there. Diggory was an escape  in itself but more importantly, they were a reason. A reason for Percy to stay alive and a reason for Percy to keep fighting. He truly believed Solomon had no idea the beast he had released in  both of them when he brought Diggory to his room not so long ago. 


End file.
